Grid Charger
Grid charger owners and location, as well as some service links for hybrid services
Grid charger code V3.0 manual
Understanding the charging and balancing process
Pack discharger
SOC reset device
Insight Battery pack lifter
Grid charger test adapters
Reprogramming the charger
Installing the Genesis One Universal grid charger in an Insight
Installing the Genesis One Universal grid charger in a First Gen Civic
Harness options
The Universal Grid Charger
MIMA Pack Whack and rebalancing the battery
Mikes Insight
EV Insight with a Prius heart
Grid charger Operating Instructions V1.2
Designing a PHEV system for the Civics, Insight 1 and 2 ------------Micro V-Buck PHEV
Doug's V-Boost
Randall's Insight
Paul's Adventures in alternative evergy
Western Washington University X-Prize car
BlueBird1
Finding The Best Hybrid Mix
5th wheel part 2
Air cooled 5th wheel
Air springs arrive
No assist when warm
Attachment plate / Ripping the battery pack out .
Back to the 5th wheel
Back to the 5th wheel with some power in our pocket
Beefing up the rear suspension to handle the extra battery weight
Better wheel
IMA Battery Booster/Balencer/Charge controller.
Booster Battery progress
Booster pack test 1
Breaking away from the grid
Cleaning things up for the trek to Madison
DC/DC mounting and cooling
E-Wheel repair and inspection
Final 5th wheel
Finishing up the boost power supply
First full weight test
First power up of boost power supply
Got the exhaust finished
FAS
Holy Bat Dropings Robin it is an electric car
MIMA logo?
Air spring and EV wheel begin to take shape
More Prius batteries
New 5th wheel
One hour of electric priority
Portable charging system
Second boost test run
Some booster battery options
Starting to plan the trip to Madison
Test runs and 5th wheel
The Etek motor
The EV Wheel
The ideal battery for a 200 mile commute
Vboost +MIMA, a winning combo for the Insight
What is that orange tail on my Insight
E-wheel for any vehicle

Beefing up the rear suspension to handle the extra battery weight

click to expand
The batteries, no matter what type we end up with will force us to give the springs some help. As one would expect in an 1800 lb car with only 360LB of carrying capacity.
The 4 optimas are nearly 250 additional lbs, and would likely fit right in the spare tire well, so all the weight would be supported by the rear springs. I like the air spring concept, but it is not clear yet if we could fit one in the spring space. Heavier springs are another option, but we would have to have the rear fitted with all the batteries to be able to spec the required additional weight capacity.I picked up two of the air springs, and will try my luck at installing them over the weekend.
As the photo shows, the air springs are a bit on the big side.
The springs are loaded with 150lbs in the right hand photo that shows the air spring.